71 - Paul ÉLUARD. À toute épreuve.

Paul ÉLUARD. À toute épreuve. À toute épreuve. Woodcuts by Joan Miró. Geneva, Gérald Cramer, 1958. Folio, taupe morocco leather, plain spine, large mosaic design on the covers in four tones (yellow, red, blue, and black), black box linings, red box endpapers, edges gilt on markers, upper cover—illustrated—from the original cover preserved and bound at the end, slipcase, case (Ivor Robinson, Oxford, 1959). First illustrated edition. Printed in a run of 130 copies on Arches vellum paper (no. 50). A marvelous book illustrated by Joan Miró with 80 woodcut compositions in black and color: “One of the most original and beautiful books of the century” (Riva Castleman). À toute épreuve is an exceptional book. Even if one might prefer the rigor of *Parler seul*, it displays such freedom, so much inventiveness, with no lulls whatsoever—it is such a pleasure to leaf through it […] that one forgives Miró for having given these poems—some of which are comparable in their brevity to haikus—a visual presentation so different from that of the original edition: significantly greater, while at the same time rendered almost too discreet in the display of forms and signs that woodcut printing has favored” (Antoine Coron). Twenty years later, Antoine Coron writes, Miró “attributed to this book, within his body of work, ‘capital’ importance, going so far as to write to Cramer on October 17, 1979: ‘It was with you that I began my career as an illustrator.’” Contemporary mosaic-bound, triple-sewn binding by Ivor Robinson (1924– 2014), one of the leading English bookbinders of the 20th century. Spine and edges of the covers somewhat browned. The dust jacket is faded. (Cramer, Joan Miró, Illustrated Books, no. 49.—Coron, From Goya to Max Ernst, Illustrated Books from the R.M. Library, no. 68.—Castleman, A Century of Artists Books, p. 101: the bibliographer notes “the truly exuberant embellishments that dance on the pages of this perfectly produced book.”)